Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Herschel Talley | Sgt. First Class Shawn Humphrey (left) and Spc. Connor Deines (center) off-load...... read more read more
As Hurricane Florence was setting up to make landfall along the North and South Carolinas, 13 Soldiers of the Nebraska National Guard, Company G, 2nd of the 104th General Support Aviation Battalion were activated on September 13, 2018, and along with two UH-60 Blackhawk helicopters began their mission to help those affected by the hurricane.
For some the mission was personal and not going on the mission to help was not an option. Chief Warrant Officer 4 Steven Helmandollar, a pilot with 20 years in the North Carolina National Guard and now with five years in the Nebraska National Guard, grew up in North Carolina.
“I wanted to go back and help. It’s always go to do your job when you can go back and help somebody,” said Helmandollar. “My wife and I chose Nebraska since she is from from here, but me, I’m a North Carolinian.”
Crew chief specialist Matthew Reidy shared the same eagerness to help in the wake of the hurricane.
“I have friends and family down here, but also when you get the chance to do a rescue missions, usually the crew chiefs will jump at it,” said Reidy.
The soldiers and their aircraft took off that Thursday morning from the Joint Force Headquarters in Lincoln, Nebraska, to McGhee Tyson Air Base in Knoxville, Tennessee on the first leg of their mission. Friday morning came and after assessing the weather, the call was made to proceed with the mission and continue to Raleigh, North Carolina.
Helmandollar knew how critical it was to make it into North Carolina before the storms returned.
“The track of Florence at the time was that it would come in on the coast, go into South Carolina, and then turn back onto the mountains. The expectation was if you get stuck on the west side of the mountains, you may be stuck there for a while,” said Helmandollar. “Being in the North Carolina Guard for 20 years and flying around the mountains of North Carolina, I knew it was important to get on the east side of the mountains before it made that turn. We want to get here to help.”
On Sept. 15, after landing in the rain, at the Army Aviation Support Facility, near the Raleigh Durham International Airport in Raleigh, North Carolina, the unit quickly began prepare for search and rescue operations. The crews inspected their equipment and hoists again and began to study the areas that were most impacted by Hurricane Florence.
The next day, the group began running missions to assist with the relief efforts along the coast and it never stopped. In the four days, the soldiers were in Raleigh, they ran over a dozen missions and covered the state from New Bern in the center along the coast, to Wilmington by the southern tip, to 60 miles inland around Fayetteville and Elizabethtown.
“The first one or two days is all about life saving, and trying to make sure life is preserved and after that, it’s all about rebuilding and trying to get people through the next week or two, until those waters go down,” said Helmandollar. “If they are isolated or need food, usually it’s resupply missions. It’s usually chaotic at the beginning, but it smoothies out after a day.”
“Nebraska got lucky,” said Major Thomas Traylor, the officer in charge of the Nebraska contingent. “We were able to do passenger transport, medivac, search and rescue and also a hoist mission. We got a little bit of everything.”
The hoist mission took place in the area around Burgaw, North Carolina. The aircraft was on a mission to resupply a fire station serving as a hurricane relief center with food and water, when a flare was shot at their aircraft. Due to the weight of the helicopter at the time, the crew completed the drop off and returned to the area. Circling the area, the crew noticed a large tree had fallen on a house. Specialist Matthew Reidy was the crew chief for the operation.
“There wasn’t a lot of water but the ground was soggy enough we couldn’t land,” said Reidy. “We prepped the cabin for hoist and sent the swimmer from the Oklahoma Task Force One-[Helicopter Search and Rescue Team] down and he hooked her up and put her in rescue basket. Myself and Sgt. 1st Class Humphrey helped get her in and secured. I then sent the hoist back down and the rescue swimmer came up with another person and we got them in and took them to a shelter in Wilmington. Our state doesn’t actually have baskets, so that was my first time using a basket ever. That was also my first time doing a real hoist mission.”
Despite the lack of experience in the real world setting, Reidy took the mission as a learning opportunity.
“We do live lift and practice stuff, but that was my first time with a real patient on the end of the hoist, so that was kind of nerve wracking as I’ve never done it before. I’ve done hoists before, but I had never done a real hoist before.”
The unit also moved rescue workers and medical volunteers out of isolated areas to other areas needing more assistance and moving critical patients out of isolated hospitals to hospitals in the region. They supported the Bladen County Emergency Response Team by carrying the county’s Emergency Manager, Planning Director and County Sheriff on an aerial survey of the damaged and heavily flooded county. Along the Cape Fear River the flooding was so severe, they said it was worse than the previous hurricane, Hurricane Matthew in late September 2016.
On Thursday, September 21, 2018, the Nebraska contingent was release back to their state command and began the trip home. Friday the following day, the 13 soldiers and two UH-60 Blackhawks returned to Lincoln knowing that they had helped make a difference.
Chief Warrant Officer 2 Galen Kreifels was a pilot for the mission and to him, the Nebraska contingent fulfilled their mission.
“This is the kind of stuff I joined the National Guard for,” said Kreifels. “Helping out our neighbors is what Nebraska is all about and the reason I joined the Guard.”
“The Guard is typically ready to go,” said Helmandollar. “When I was in the North Carolina Guard, they were ready to go. I’m in the Nebraska National Guard, they are ready to go. Even the young guys are ready to go and they just learn to do things as they go. Their ability to go in to a chaotic situation and know things might not go as expected, it’s the mindset."
| Date Taken: | 09.30.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 05.06.2023 10:10 |
| Story ID: | 444165 |
| Location: | RALEIGH, NC, US |
| Web Views: | 62 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Nebraska Soldiers help out in the wake of Hurricane Florence, by SFC Herschel Talley, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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